SAN FRANCISCO — Religious institutions cannot be held liable for discriminating against employees on the basis of religion, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday.
The state high court threw out a lawsuit by an evangelical Christian who was fired from a Catholic medical foundation after he proselytized to other employees.
The court held that the U.S. and California constitutions protect thousands of religious employers--including religious publishing houses, television and radio stations and churches and schools--from litigation, said Jeffrey A. Berman, who represented several churches and religious groups in the case.
File clerk Terence Silo had "been counseled three times previously
A Superior Court jury awarded Silo damages and attorney fees, and a state Court of Appeal upheld the awards on the grounds that the state Constitution bars religious discrimination in the workplace. But the Supreme Court said Thursday that religious organizations have the right under the 1st Amendment to "define themselves and their religious message" and may fire workers for "objectionable religious speech."
Secular employers can still be held liable for religious discrimination, but religions need "considerable discretion to choose employees who will not interfere with their religious mission," Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote for the court.
Lawyers in the case said the decision and other rulings permit religious organizations to make hiring and firing decisions solely on the basis of one's creed.
"The impact of this is great for religious institutions," Berman said. "It indicates that the California Supreme Court is sensitive to the issue of religious autonomy and to both the state and federal constitutional rights of religions to regulate themselves."
Thursday's ruling stemmed from a lawsuit Silo filed against the Catholic Healthcare West Medical Foundation. The organization hired Silo in July 1991 to work in its medical records department in Sacramento. More than a year later, Silo experienced a religious conversion.
"I gave my life to Christ," he testified at trial. "My heart was filled with the Holy Spirit, and my life was changed."
In January 1993, after already having received a poor performance evaluation, Silo met with the managers at the clinic. A fellow employee had complained that Silo told her not "to use the name of God in vain," and a patient objected that Silo had been "preaching" to him.
